A 27-year-old woman was arrested Friday morning and a third woman was being sought in connection with a violent beating outside a Santa Ana nightclub that left Kim Pham, a 23-year-old Westminister woman dead, authorities announced during a news conference Friday afternoon, according to KTLA.
Carlos Rojas, Santa Ana’s interim police chief, declined to release the name of the most recent arrestee, citing the ongoing investigation. Police did, however, release a photo of the third woman being sought, according to the L.A. Times. (The photo is below).
The news came on the same day that an organ donation agency announced that Pham’s organs have “saved five lives through the donation of her heart, kidneys, lungs, pancreas and liver to patients on the national organ transplant waiting list,” according to the New York Daily News.
It was estimated that a crowd of 50 people – count ’em – simply stood and watched as Pham was being kicked and stomped to death, according to the O.C. Register. Ironically Pham, an aspiring writer, wrote about the killing of Kelly Thomas in her last blog post. “Severe aggression, threats and savagely violent battery are completely uncalled for,” Pham wrote, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Police and city leaders made a point Friday of stressing that the death of Kim Pham is not considered a hate crime, and the mayor of the predominantly Latino city urged Vietnamese American residents to remain calm, according to the L.A. Times.
But hate crime is defined “as a crime motivated by racial, sexual, or other prejudice, typically one involving violence.” Isn’t that what happened to Pham? Three women and two men beat Pham down onto the ground where they kicked her into a coma. Fifty people watched and took pictures and video. And I am supposed to believe this wasn’t a hate crime?
The party is over for Santa Ana Councilwoman Michele Martinez, who represents Downtown Santa Ana
The Santa Ana City Council is deathly afraid that Asians will stop coming to Downtown Santa Ana to get drunk in the hipster bars. But the reality is that Pham was executed by a crowd that had no good reason to do so. Of course it was a hate crime. And no we aren’t safe in Downtown Santa Ana – especially our Vietnamese residents. Not anymore. There are over 50 people running around this town who apparently think it is OK to murder Asians. We should all find that very chilling.
Now the question is why all the hate? The reality is that Santa Ana’s young people have been indoctrinated into believing in class war, by their political leaders. The Vietnamese came here with nothing but they value education and work hard and don’t get bogged down believing they are victims. They get good jobs in engineering, medicine and technology. And for this they are hated by jealous people who often are complete losers.
Pham didn’t have to die. But her killers lost it and in a few minutes their petty jealousy and hatred turned into a murderous rage. And now life in Santa Ana has been changed forever. And the Downtown? The gentrifiers have lost their power. The Crosby remains closed and the rest of the overpriced hipster restaurants are going to find it increasingly hard to stay open as their customers dwindle.
Don’t be fooled by these politicians. Instead ask them why they were complicit in turning our Downtown into a drunken playground that has now become a killing field.
Wow! Great to the point article.
Thanks! I am having to spend a lot of time countering the spin coming from City Hall…
Way to promote more violence against Latinos by whipping up hatred and promoting stereotypes. The crowd at the Crosby is predominantly Asian, so the “over 50 people running around this town who apparently think it is OK to murder Asians” were other Asians! Vicious? Yes. Hate crime? No evidence to support that. If the victim had been Latino and the circumstances were the same, would it be a hate crime? No.
And you say “The Vietnamese came here with nothing but they value education and work hard and don’t get bogged down believing they are victims. They get good jobs in engineering, medicine and technology.” Way to promote Asian stereotypes! I’ve seen plenty of drunk Asian women downtown stumbling and even passed out on the ground in front of Proof. Students in their early 20’s, just like Pham. Not model citizens, but rather fully assimilated drunk American college chicks. For the record, I don’t see any drunk Latinos downtown. Maybe they can’t afford the drinks. Maybe they have to work in the morning so they don’t have the luxury to get blotto every weekend.
And you basically say local working class Latinos, whose families also came here with nothing, are just “jealous people who often are complete losers.” Seriously sick commentary. Irresponsible and mean. You actually crossed the line into hate speech with this post. Read the definition you posted. The shoe fits. Sad. Disappointing.
I want to know what was said or done that night to provoke such a violent response. Still no evidence that this crime was motivated by race, gender or prejudice. It appears to be motivated by alcohol and seething class tensions engineered by Downtown Inc that are enabled by the ineffective “Clean and Safe” foxes watching the henhouse. The verdict is still out on this case, but it is in regarding your post. Hate speech!
I never said that about the families. I said that about the jerks that killed Pham. The families were chased out of Downtown Santa Ana by the gentrifiers awhile ago.
And if Asians killed a Latina and called her a beaner in the process I would call that a hate crime too. But that is not what happened.
This was clearly a hate crime and the fact that you and other gentrifiers are working overtime to avoid that tag tells me all I need to know. This vicious murder threatens to ruin all of the hipster bars and restaurants and that is what you really care about.
Your article is trash. Instead of presenting factual evidence you present a wholly subjective hate article. The L.A Times (credible cite) states that police and city leaders made a point Friday stressing that the death of Kim Pham is not considered a hate crime. Instead of focusing on ethnicity, lets shift our perspective to humanity. The perpretators who committed such crime are evil and malicious HUMANS who deserve to be imprisoned with similar humans; those who are incapable of living civilized and moral lives.
Additionally, only the players that seek drugs and alcohol play on this “drunken playground.” Substance use alters the mind, and frankly the perpetrators might have been under the influence, which caused them to act unjustifiably. Also, this might have been the reason why Kim’s friends stood on the side. If hate was the reason, I’m sure this would have been a group brawl and not a one man fight.
Alcohol and drugs amplify who you already are. Pham’s killers were already racists. Now they’re murderers too.
You will find plenty of Mexicans in line at 7-11, cvs, rite aid waiting to purchase cheap booze. Always.
And you basically say local working class Latinos, whose families also came here with nothing, are just “jealous people who often are complete losers.”
seems pretty true though.
another mexican on asian crime
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2014/01/daniel_perez-munoz_phuong_huyn.php
No I didn’t say yhat about families. I said that about the jerks that killed Pham.
Most troublemakers in Santa Ana aren’t immigrants. They are American born, like Michele Martinez. She was selling drugs when she was 17.
Jimmy Norton, thanks for proving my point that this post promotes hate against Latinos. Nowhere in ANY of the reports is there evidence that the Latinos uttered racial epithets against Asians. How do you know one of the Asians in the crowd didn’t insult the Latina women for being Mexican or poor or gordita or wearing untrendy clothes even for just being a local? That some drunk Asian Crosbyite didn’t push, hit or say something so offensive to a single mother that her friends went ballistic and Pham ended up paying the price?
And if you think that Asians are model people not prone to violence, let me remind you of the Vietnam war, Cambodian genocide, China in the last 50 years, Japan in World War II. You want to talk about hate crimes against Asians, there’s more historical record of Asian racism against other Asians, than Latinos against Asians.
And you see, that’s the horrible thing about hate speech, Editor, you may think you were blasting the “bad Mexicans” and not the “good Mexicans” such as yourself, but you opened the door for hatred that bashes all Mexicans. And finally, the accounts point out that it was 5 Latinos in a crowd of up to 50 mostly Asian drunk brawlers. Does that sound like a fair fight to you?
Quote from the OC Weekly story: “We do not have enough information to determine how that altercation started, or who said what,” Rojas said.”
Please Stop the Hate!
Who cares what the temp police chief says? The gentrifiers are clearly pulling his strings.
dont the messyc*nts got problems with cartels?drugs?prostitution? gangs??? everyday i walk out and i see what was once beautiful los angeles turn into an infested wet burrito filled with greasy wetback illegal aliens.
messyc*nts used to be tribes of savages killing each other and sacrificing babies. good thing my spanish brothers came over “azteca” and re-educate you guys.
U have to be f*cking kidding me if ur really gonna be pushing on this hate crime shit. Open ur f*cking eyes it was drunk people fighting that got out of hand and ended with a death. Thats it. Why dont you report on the murders that asain people have committed against latino people. Were those hate crimes also?
Your language speaks for itself. Were you laughing it up too while Pham was beat to death?
And what Asian killings of Latinos are you referring to? The last Asian to get killed in our city was a homeless Vietnamese man shot by the SAPD. I don’t recall any Latinos being kicked to death by Asians.
Remember that 12 of those 50 watching were phams so called friends according to eye witnesses. Thats something to think about.
Yes you guys keep spinning that but they were probably scared out of their minds by the attack and the attack itself didn’t last long. But I bet her friends weren’t laughing and taking pictures! They were probably in shock.
Trust me if you look for them in the oc register and you will come across them. They did after all happen within the last 4 years. So it hasnt been that long for you not to remember. You can do some hw to.
We post just about every press release from the SAPD and the OCDA. I have seen no killings of Latinos by Asians.
Oc weekly
This article is trash, it is the one and only article that is pushing this unfortunate incident as being a hate crime. Why? The victim could have been anyone that day, but unfortunately it was Kim, a Vietnamese American. Let us not focus on ethnicity, but on humanity. The perpetrators are evil and malicious HUMANS; therefore, it is only right for them to be persecuted and locked away with those who are similar to them. Credible sources such as the L.A. Times state that police and city leaders made a point Friday of stressing that the death of Kim Pham is not considered a hate crime. A club is a place where drugs and alcohol are feasible therefore, only the players who seek to play in a “drunken playground” will attend such place. It is these that make a more probable cause than “hate.”If this was instigated by hate why wern’t Kim’s friends attacked as well? Why wasn’t it a group brawl?
All credibility to this website has been lost. This article is not factual, but wholly subjective.
Even though one of the killers called Pham a gook? That is racist.
Imagine if a gay man had been kicked to death in Downtown Santa Ana? The gentrifiers would be screaming that it was a hate crime.
is there a confirm on that? srs inquiry.
It’s coming. That’s why the police are dragging this out. They’re going to try to make a case that it was just a disagreement.
what the f*ck are these broke ass paisa ass cholos and cholas even doing at hipster bars…i dont think theirs lowrider shoes and daddy yankee performing there….
There is truth to this article, there are a lot of hispanics who disrespect and despise asians a lot, i don’t think its the majority, but it only takes 10% to matter and I feel it more than that. there are racial tensions undoubtedly. When I started a community center in Pomona for children, I didn’t get a lot of respect at first, but I earned it spending time with kids from all different backgrounds in that area, mostly hispanic and black. part of the point was, it had to be earned. However, the kids didn’t care what color I was, just that I had the time listen and spend with them. i married a latina and it was stressful for her being pressured to have more academic pursuits, from my family. I wasn’t happy how things turned out either, and if I were mad at hispanics I’d realize I’m just trying to scapegoat my failures, when instead its probably more productive to learn from mistakes. And I adore my son, and he’s half hispanic. Then I have my brother and he started a business with a hispanic partner about six years ago and now their business is extremely thriving in Santa Ana with about 70:30 ratio of hispanic to asian clientelle. I guess it just depends on the type of person you want to be. If you want to hate, its your right…maybe you have a handful of friends who will cheer you on…You can promote that hate and make it grow and surround yourself with it…If that’s what you choose, and then you can try to teach that to your children. How do you think that works out? That said, I tried to embrace diversity and tried really hard to overlook cultural and class tensions, but I felt it was difficult to overcome some of the cultural and class differences at least in a marriage. I think it takes a great deal of understanding, wisdom, and maturity, which I did not possess, and I’m not even sure most people possess, to make things like this work. My brother does it easily with his friend and business partner, and so does all the people he works with. I care about this matter but its not an easy situation. I don’t think the solution is to be angry. I think catching these criminals, more police, better surveillance is what Santa Ana needs to bring Asians back. I’m an asian, and I think we’re smaller and its intimidating being the smallest race in this country. PAside from any racism, i’d like more protection just in general. There were probably a bunch of asians just watching, they were probably afraid of dying. But then again some guy in my culture lit himself on fire to try to stop the war in Vietnam. Amazingly, a white dude in America was so impressed he did himself in front of the Pentagon to send a message in America as well.
You guys are a bunch of f@cking idiots. All crimes are hate crimes. I know what the author is up to when he wrote this article. Are a majority of Latinos more violent than Asians? Yes. Are a majority of Asians smarter than Latinos? Yes. Do people do crazy things when they are drunk? Absolutely. Did the Latinos beat up an Asian girl because she was an idiot smack talker? Hell ya. Was the killing a hate crime? No, it was a bunch of drunken dumbasses that got violent. Violence doesn’t care if you’re black, white, Asian, or etc.
Now my biggest question is who watched the 10 kids that the Latinas had while they were out getting wasted?
Trash article. U should b ashamed of yourself. Drunk human beings murdered another human being in a drunken rage. Your writing does nothing positive for the situation except try to form some sorta line in the sand between races. Junk, trash writing I cannot express that enough.
Thsy literally k8cked a young lady to death. That is not just alcohol at work. That is pure hate.
Hard and hard not to consider this a hate crime. If the girl who photobombed this group of murderers were also Hispanic would the outcome have been different? Absolutely.
A woman is beaten (STOMPED) to death on a Friday night. One of her assailants drops her SMARTPHONE, police can’t put that together for three days. It takes three more to arrest a second subject. As of Friday, they have not identified the third.
HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?
City leaders come forward far more concerned with revenue for contributors than the violence that permeates the city. I think that says it all.
I would offer this to the SAPD, if you want to identify these woman, simply go to the Payan X facebook page, it’s there you can see these “Warriors” in all their glory. Nice to know Payan is training women to be MMA fighters.
I can’t find much to disagree with you her Art, but I don’t think that downtown improvement (gentrification) is the actual problem. The clowns are just doing it wrong.
You could hear a pin drop over at the “progressive Voice of OC and the formerly moderate OJB blog on this subject.
Funny how Adam E, is all over beer parties with the mayors 17 year old son, but when Benavides and Martinez friends STOMP a woman to death they are quiet. Where is the call for racial equality in Santa Ana like Anaheim? Oh, that’s only when we don’t like (Pulido), but it’s an “isolated event” when it’s the “vibrant downtown.
The hypocrisy is amazing
If you are waiting for Greg Diamond to do the right thing instead of the politically opportune thing then you need a refresher in “shilling 101”. I thing Adam E. teaches that class (oh wait, that’s I am a hack for unions, co-presented by the equally buyable Jenifer Muir)
The problem is the only hate crime the authorities will acknowledge is when there is a black victim. Asian or white? Forget it. This is the insane pass to which bizarro political correctness has taken us.
Defining a Hate Crime
A hate crime is a traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias. For the purposes of collecting statistics, Congress has defined a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.” Hate itself is not a crime—and the FBI is mindful of protecting freedom of speech and other civil liberties
I had to look it up. I bet that those involved in that young ladies death will have the added charge of “hate crime”
Exactly Cook! Thanks for looking that up.
Almost exactly Cook.
A normal fight is based on resolution of issues arising from one on one dispute. If a third party or gang is participating in such fight it is for other reason which is usually race, affiliation, dislike which are inconsistent with an original dispute.
The alcohol has noting to do with a dispute. The alcohol is only enhancer of such dispute.
That is why three on one is a hate crime.
The third sustpect they are looking for is quite possibly Benavides’ lover who broke up the marriage. This is bigger than anyone wants to believe and a cover up is taking place. Benavides has ordered the police to “take care of the problem.
This is not as far fetched as it sounds. We KNOW Pablo Benavides advertised his realty business as being located at 1607 N. Sycamore before taking the job in Orange with Seven Gables (where he still has NO LISTINGS).
We also KNOW that he has now admitted to what was widely rumored, blogged about and denied, that he IS divorced and is living in the house his wife got for them through her SAUSD job. He has been seen recently celebrating the birthday of a young, single Latina Mom, who is well known, but I won’t drag into his toilet bowl of a life.
The police union connection is far to convienent in my book.
This form of bad mouthing (of Benavides) is not much difference than kicking someone in the head as they lie on the ground.
You’ll remember that the rumors about his marriage proved to be true.
Whose to say that these new rumors aren’t spot on as well?
He’s clearly changed since his first election, and not for the better.
Cook,
Why would Pablo Benavides be lying on the ground if were innocent?
I find his lack of action on this subject disgusting and telling. So either he simply a LYING POLITICAN (best case) or so slippery he actually is involved with people that would do this.
Sure it stinks, it’s mean and perhaps even unfair. But as Editor points out, he continually lied and had his defenders challenge the truth, to the point of threatening violence, only to now shrug and say: “My divorce was hard……” .
To compare Benavides behavior with the stomping death of an innocent makes me wonder just how ignorant you have become.
Not much different???? You are way of base.
My point was to show that their problems have nothing to do with the lady who was killed.
I hope that they can remain friendly for the sake of their children.
So true. The kids always get hurt when the parents split up.